Betting on full carbon fiber arrow bodies and full-flow liquid oxygen methane engines, Micro Light Launch has secured hundreds of millions in Angel+ funding

Cailian Press March 31 (Reporter Liang Xiangcai) Beijing Micro-Light Startup Technology Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Micro-Light Startup”), which focuses on the technical route of “all-carbon-fiber arrow-shaped body + all-flow liquid oxygen/methane rocket engine,” has recently completed a billion-yuan angel + Series A round of financing.

Cailian Press reporter learned that this round was led by Qifu Capital and Yichen Capital, with Lihe Venture Capital participating as a follower. The funds will mainly be used for the engineering development of the company’s full-carbon-fiber rocket “Micro-Light No. 1” and the all-flow liquid oxygen/methane engine “Huaguang No. 1.”

Public information shows that Qifu Capital had previously invested in several domestic companies, including Aerospace Hongtu (688066.SH), a leading satellite remote sensing firm; Bluestar Optical Domain, a supplier of satellite laser communication; and the Voyager, which is betting on the development of reusable spacecraft and space tourism operations.

An official from Micro-Light Startup said that by the end of February 2026, the company had completed the manufacturing and verification of the first nationwide engineering prototype of a liquid oxygen/methane carbon-fiber co-bonded cryogenic tank. The product adopts an unlinned T800-class full carbon-fiber solution. The verification results provided by the company were: compared with traditional materials, the structure weight is reduced by 30%, the production cycle is shortened by 90%, and the cost is about 70% of that of traditional materials.

It should be noted that the tank is a core structural component of the rocket airframe; its weight and cost directly affect payload efficiency and launch quotation. There are still reliability assessments, environmental adaptability tests, and other steps between the engineering prototype verification and mass production for flight with mounted payloads. The final performance will be subject to subsequent hot-fire tests and flight test verifications.

As for the engine, for “Huaguang No. 1,” the key components of the all-flow engine have completed liquid-flow tests. The company plans to complete full-system engine testing in 2026.

Micro-Light Startup has clearly set a market-based pricing target for the “Micro-Light No. 1” rocket: the single-use rocket launch quotation is below 20k yuan per kilogram, and the recoverable/reusable rocket quotation is below 5,000 yuan per kilogram. At the same time, the company has set an internal core target that its gross margin rate should be 60% or above for product R&D.

As a reference, in today’s global commercial launch market, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle has an estimated single-launch cost of about $5,000 per kilogram. In China, Zhongke Aerospace’s LiJian 2 program’s chief commander Yang Haoliang told a Cailian Press reporter recently that currently, for the LiJian 2 launch vehicle without recovery, the single-launch cost is 30k yuan per kilogram; with recovery later, the cost is expected to drop to half of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 single-launch cost.

What’s worth paying attention to is that the above Micro-Light Startup quotations are a forward-looking target. The company’s timeline is: by 2028, achieve full commercial operations of carbon-fiber rockets; in 2029, conduct recovery tests; and in 2030, achieve commercial operations of reusable-type rockets.